War
by MOUNT-PILATE1667
Summary: A group of humans need to land their malfunctioning ship, only to discover that the natives are like nothing they have encountered before...
1. Discovery

War

By: MOUNT_PILATE1667

"Those damn alarms again!" I yelled, jumping out of bed. Being in a cramped piece of metal everyday doesn't really do anything good for your patience. Mine was beginning to wear down after being stuck here for 3 months.

I ran to the bridge. After reading some of the system reports, I decided that what was going on was not a mistake. The entire fleet had detected it as well as our ship, the capital ship.

"What the hell is going on?" Fleet Commander Alan screamed at us, angry time was being taken out of his already shortened sleeping schedule.

"Apparently some sort of object is approaching from the system we are about to pass. It's probably just an asteroid or comet but the computer doesn't recognize what the object is." I said.

"What the hell are you talking about Paine?" Alan said.

Now you see, Alan is one of those people who gets upset when he doesn't understand something. He says it's helped him survive. I think it helps him keep his sanity. We all have little quirks like that, the doctors say it's perfectly normal to have them when you're stressed out all day.

"I have no idea Commander. I told you everything I know. Shouldn't you be telling the other ships?"

We had one simple mission. Guide some merchant ships through an asteroid field. They couldn't do it themselves because they didn't have the rockets to stop anything from hitting their small metallic ships. We had never been told why they needed an entire fleet to shoot some rocks. Whatever.

By now the commander had left. I wanted to use this to my advantage, so I put the ship into manual. The doctors also say it's a good stress reliever. Something about "being in control", well unlike the psychopaths who end up getting it, I wasn't one for power. I didn't really care for the whole bureaucracy deal at all to be honest. It didn't help that I was good at what I did. I may not have been some hotshot race pilot, but I was efficient, and saved some important ass from space rocks. But none of that mattered right now. Now it was just me, some coffee, and my big flying piece of metal. Alone in the stars.

* * *

><p>The five ponies continued walking through PonyVille, intent on catching the missing member of their group to win the game.<p>

"I'm gonna check the sky's. Come on and help me Fluttershy." Rainbow Dash said. Nopony wanted to let Pinkie Pie take yet another flawless victory against all five of her friends.

"We only have a few minutes left guys! If we try we can still find her!" Twilight told the others. They had been looking all morning. The deadline before Pinkie won was noon.

"I'm gonna search the barn again. I coulda sworn I heard her giggling in the rafters." Applejack told the group before heading off to the barn.

"Can we call this whole shenanigan off Twilight? I, for one, am tired of playing in this hot sun. I say we go back to the library where it's cool." Rarity said exasperated.

They all knew they had no chance of finding the little pink pony. She was simply to unpredictable for them to ever have hope of finding her. But they were determined. They spent the last 10 minutes playing right until the clock tower struck noon.

"Guess we're going to the library guys." Twilight said.

They all knew they were to meet Pinkie at the end of the game. After they had all gathered, Pinkie made her grand entrance coming down from the sky with balloons.

"You guys are so silly! How couldn't you see me hovering over ponyville the entire time?" Pinkie seemed oblivious to the fact that her friends were tired and dirty.

"How didn't I see you when I flew over ponyville? Twice?" Rainbow Dash was frustrated that she had lost.

"I was in a cloud! It was like a big soft piece of cotton candy!" Pinkie then went on to tell her friends just how she stayed low enough to see them, and all the other things she did in the cloud for fun. Just as she was finishing though, Spike ran down the stairs, letter in hand, calling for Twilight.

"The Princess sent you a letter! Should I read it or are you guys busy? It looks pretty important."

"Read it out loud Spike, we just finished what we were doing."

"Ahem,

Dear Twilight and Friends,

I need you all to return to Canterlot Castle IMMEDIATELY!

Celestia"

"Tell her we'll be right their Spike!" Twilight told him

Spike sent the letter to Celestia. The princess almost immediately replied.

"Ahem,

Dear Twilight and Friends,

I'm sending over a carriage to bring you to Canterlot.

Hold on until then.

Celestia"

"What could have happened Twilight?" Fluttershy timidly continued "You don't think another dragon came to Equestria do you?"

"We can't be sure until we get there Fluttershy, but if it was a dragon I think we would know by now."

The loud sounds of a carriage pulling up in front of the library got all of them to turn towards the front. A stallion knocked on the door and patiently waited for the ponies inside to emerge.

"The Princess never said how long we would be staying, but we could probably get the things we need in Canterlot." Rarity, the Canterlot expert, told them.

"Then lets head on out!" The others all agreed.

They all got into the carriage one by one, patiently waiting to see what was going on.

* * *

><p>"It is definitely not an asteroid, or a comet, or anything naturally found in space."<p>

The object that had been approaching was definitely under its own power. The fact that it had turned to intersect the small fleet of ships and accelerated towards them proved their entire hypothesis wrong in an instant.

"Could it be solar wind?" Alan asked

"No sir, the star in this system isn't giving off any solar wind at all. In fact, it doesn't appear to be emitting anything other than heat and light." I was simply reading off reports as they were entered at this point. Nobody had ever heard of a star that wasn't radioactive.

"How the hell could that ball of gas not be radioactive? That's how the damn thing makes heat and light! Set course for that damned thing. If we're closer we'll be able to test it against the other ships scanners as well." Alan said.

"Setting course for… What do you want to name the star Commander? You are the highest ranking official onboard at the moment, the law says you get to name it." I informed him. I'm sure he knew he could name it, but he may have not known it was unnamed. After a brief moment he responded:

"Sepultra… "

"Setting course for Sepultra Commander." I moved the joystick, and adjusted some of the power to the propulsions on the opposite side of the ship, we would need that to turn. I moved to the terminal, where I entered the coordinates we should pass before I was alerted. I now had some free time.


	2. Chase

I walked around the ship aimlessly, much like how I used to on the larger federation ships I used to pilot. Similar, but not the same as the ships we were escorting now.

"Paine" The cook, Caelian, broke me out of my trance "Is something wrong Paine? Everyone in the galley felt the ship turn."

The cook had been my best, and only friend on this long voyage. We had a sort of tradition with the other men on the ship to get together every weekend and celebrate that we hadn't gone insane yet. It's a little insane in itself yes, but that was the biggest problems on these ships. If the commander didn't kill you first, then insanity certainly would, they would say. We had fairly high suicide rates on these especially long voyages and to help curb it the doctors recommended having someone we could trust as a close friend. A personal psychologist if you prefer the term. Anyways, I was Cal's and Cal's was mine.

"The commander wants us to head to some weird system we detected. You ever heard of a star with no radioactivity at all?"

"Can't say I have Paine, are you sure you're all right in the head?" Being each other's "personal psychologists" allowed us to ask each other questions we shouldn't ask other people.

"Yeah Cal, we still heading to the B quarter tomorrow?" I wanted to break away from the mind losing conversations. I had seen people do some weird thing on this ship.

"Some idiot decided to get into a fight down there yesterday night. Killed someone apparently. We got permission to use the barracks if we stay quiet. Yeah right" Cal was a great conversationalist, he knew exactly what the undertones of a conversation was without anything more than seeing someone twitching his head to the left, or right.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow if I can get out of any of the stupid bullshit the commander is sure to throw at me." I thought of my self as a good person too. The doctors said self-confidence was key. I don't know where the hell they think they are, but things don't work out predictably with lots of people in a ship of any kind. _Ever._

* * *

><p>By now the carriage had reached Canterlot castle. The six multi-colored ponies stepped out. Canterlot looked eerily beautiful in the new smog covering the lower lying buildings. The deep mechanical blows of metal gears slipping and catching. Canterlot was not designed to support the weight of the new factory's that covered its once empty public parks and forests. It was all for the industry they said.<p>

"What happened to this place? It smells like smoke and I can't see a darned thing!" Rainbow Dash was upset that it would be impossible to ever again see the beautiful city streets of Canterlot.

"I don't hear any birds chirping, only machines. Where could they have gone?" Fluttershy only barely squeaked this out, knowing that many little birds would sleep without homes because of this.

"I think it's _wonderful_ that Canterlot is now _the _most efficient town in Equestria. Cloth is so much cheaper now, my boutique in ponyville makes so much more money than it used to." Rarity said.

"Yeah, this here city doesn't have a farm near it for miles! We've sold so many more apples than before!" Applejack also thought that the mechanized improvements really helped Equestria. It was worth a little smog.

"Well, lets just see what Celestia wants first, I'm sure we can ask her about her views on all the new things in Canterlot." Twilight knew that her five friends would never reach an agreement on something already so controversial. They needed some "official guidance" first.

The rain started to slide down from the huge clouds of pollution above their heads. They walked up to the castle, and opened the door. Fluttershy was trying to ignore the dead tree being chopped down in the front garden.

Princess Celestia was waiting at the top of the stairs when they entered.

"Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student. I hope I find you and your friends well today." Celestia said.

"Why is Canterlot covered in smog? I couldn't even see the sky from the street!" Rainbow Dash was upset that she couldn't simply hover everywhere like she usually did. She had to lower herself to walking everywhere with her friends.

"Well you see Rainbow Dash, a few months ago one of our very best scientist ponies discovered something almost magical in nature. _Steam_. With steam, several very clever ponies have managed to make all sorts of contraptions that can move large things with almost no effort." Princess Celestia said all this with a dark look in her eye. She had been trying to ignore the fact that with steam, magic was no longer as applicable to simple tasks.

"Please, I invite you to stay here at Canterlot while we sort out the mess we find ourselves in. Please meet me in the banquet hall this evening, we will discuss why you are here then."

"Oki doki loki!" Pinkie Pie, happy about everything, was already thinking about what kind of decorations to put up that would match the dull red and grey outside.

* * *

><p>We were now in orbit of the strange sun that wasn't radioactive. The small detectors on the ships outer side tried to gather any information about this strange sun possible, but everything reported about it was impossible. The commander hadn't slept in three days, because of this. He had studied astronomy and astrophysics, and was the expert on the ship about such things, but he couldn't understand how a star could emanate heat and light without emanating or requiring anything else.<p>

"Paine, make a request to contact Earth. They're better equipped to understand our readings than we are." The Commander was sure that something could be gathered from what we knew. I knew that all we knew was what the computers told us.

"Commander! Captain!" A young officer ran in, his coat flapping behind him

"The ships detectors! It's picked something up!" The officer looked just as confused as I felt. Obviously anything detectable would have been detected by now.

"The object that approached us while we passed the system. It changed its course… and it was headed directly for one of the planets in this system. We may have found life Commander." The officer knew the implications of what he had said.

This would have been the first life discovered off the earth. The fact that an object managed to change its course and was headed for a planet could only mean one thing. Intelligent life orbited this strange sun.

"Follow it." Commander Alan whispered, With such finality that the officer could only turn and walk away. I turned in the opposite direction and prepared to track this object. Whatever it was, I was not letting it get away.


	3. Approach

The city of Canterlot was dark and damp. The sun would rise soon, showing how the rain had cleaned the skies. Soon after, the working ponies would arrive at the factories and mills that now peppered the city. The burning coal and wood would begin to darken the skies once again.

Of course, this is what the average day after rain would look like in Canterlot.

Before the sun could rise, a black mist darted down from the heavens, only to form into Princess Luna inside Canterlot Castle. Luna galloped as fast as she could towards the barracks.

"Sound the alarm, something terrible is about to happen." Luna instructed the guard.

Princess Luna then made her way to Celestia, where she could relay all she had seen in the space between spaces.

"Large iron creatures, like you said, are on their way here. What could it mean sister?" Luna was disoriented after her trip through the atmosphere.

"Gather the elements Luna. We may need them soon." Celestia was worried. Nothing like this had ever happened in recorded Equestrian history. The sirens outside reached a fever pitch, before slowly fading out again.

Today was not the average day in Canterlot.

* * *

><p>The giant piece of metal I was in only casually floated towards its destination. The steadiness of it was what annoyed the commander. He was a trained, battle-worn, war veteran. His view of the world was that nothing was happening fast enough unless it was too fast.<p>

"Hurry up Paine, this is important." He knew of course, that we could not simply _'hurry up'_; we might miss our target if we did. He also knew that he had been saying this endlessly for the past hour and a half.

"I don't even need to be here at all for another two hours. I'm getting more coffee." What a strange thing coffee is. This almost bitter drink that people drink to wake up. What a good thing it worked, or else I would be asleep.

I walked to the cafeteria in the B quarter, like I did most mornings. I didn't even look around before walking up to the coffee pot and pouring myself a healthy amount.

"Surprise!" Cal and some of the crew had been waiting in here. I was too tired to remember that it was my own damned birthday.

Birthdays don't really matter anymore for most men after they turn 12. This is not the case on ships in the Federation. On Federation ships, birthdays are one of the few days alcohol and other usually illegal substances can be used. Seeing as how I was about to pilot a ship into the next chapter of humans and space exploration, I turned them down. Of course, I wasn't about to turn down a chance to see some of the friends I hadn't seen for weeks. These flying metal boxes are surprisingly big.

Almost two hours had passed. The time had flown by. Cal and I walked to the door, stepping over the unconscious bodies of those who had been using 'substances'.

"I'm heading to the C quarter for a week or two. I probably won't see you until I'm back here again. Good luck." We shook each other's hands, and walked in opposite directions.

I was headed to A quarter, where the bridge was located, and Cal was headed to the C quarter, where the reactors where located. In a slight euphoria from the party, I walked all the way to bridge with happy thoughts of life back home. Only to be ripped back into reality by the Commanders angry voice.

"You should have been here 15 minutes ago Paine. Check these reports and make sure we're on course. I'm headed to the radio room." Commander Alan walked away as well.

Wouldn't be long now until we arrived.

* * *

><p>The sirens had been wailing all morning.<p>

Two unicorns, two pegasi, and two earth ponies followed the swift blue alicorn through the castle.

"Celestia is in the Canterlot observatory. She needs you all to meet her there. She also had spike send the elements over from ponyville." Luna wanted to keep conversation quick. She knew they had little time. She had seen the monsters.

"I'm still confused… and scared…" Fluttershy timidly told the other ponies.

"Nothing to worry about while I'm here Fluttershy! I can solve any problem in 10 seconds flat!" RainbowDash was just spilling in confidence. She had no idea what the iron monsters from the sky were capable of.

"Can we see some identification?" Two of the soldiers now protecting this special tower asked the group of ponies. They had arrived at the observatory.

Luna used her horn to teleport the papers she had gathered to the soldier's feet.

"Let us in immediately!" Luna yelled to the soldier. They stepped aside, slightly surprised, to let the group of ponies through.

"To the top!" Luna instructed the other ponies.

They promptly followed, and began to ascend the staircase leading to the telescope room.

* * *

><p>"<em>We have confirmed that intelligent life is on the planet below commander. Permission to begin orbit of the planet?" <em>My radio buzzed a little as it waited for the reply.I was required to ask the highest-ranking officer on the ship. This was all just a small part of the rules and codes I needed to access. Dreamed up by politicians, psychologists, biologists, and even the children of those people. They had been in place since before humans had gone to the single earthly moon. Nobody knew when it would be needed, so why not have them ready for use?

I read in amazement how thought through these requirements must have been for their time. The basic outline of the rules was this: All civilizations were somewhere on the list of the 7 technology tiers, 7 being the least advanced, anything pre-industrial, and 0 being godlike beings that could control galaxies, and speed up evolution.

Humans are currently at the third tier: Being able to purposely travel between stars efficiently.

The race of creatures below was at the sixth tier. Having machines capable of mass-producing simple items, and relying on non-sustainable fossil fuels for energy.

"_Permission granted captain." _My radio said the three words that I needed, to get our asses in action.

"_Beginning orbit of planet. Prepare for short term artificial gravity loss." _I radioed the entire ships comm system. Everyone would now be preparing to fly around for a few minutes, in a few minutes.

I watched the planet approach, a strange green and blue never seen off handedly in space. It seemed familiar. Striking some deep chord within my subconscious.

Welcome, it said.

* * *

><p>The little group of ponies now waited atop the tower. Taking turns to search the skies with the large telescope on this tower.<p>

"Any minute now girls. Be ready." Princess Celestia had no idea what was going to happen. She just knew that she wanted to keep it under control.

The hull of the ship started glowing a slight red, perfectly normal when passing through the thin upper atmosphere of any planet. Now, we wait again a bit more.

"Oh! It's my tail! It's my tail! It's a-twitch a-twitchin'! And you know what that means! The twichin' means my Pinkie Sense is telling me that stuff's gonna start falling!" Pinkie was what Celestia and Luna were waiting for.

"I see something red… And big… What is it Princess?" Twilight was never empty of questions. Celestia knew those would have to be answered after their purpose here was done.

"Use the elements on that… object… Twilight." Celestia was just as confused as the other ponies, but only saw one logical explanation for this encounter.

"Are you sure princess? We still need to figure out wha-" She was cut off

"DO IT TWILIGHT!" Celestia and Luna both screamed. They had a vague idea of what the object was.

"Oh… Okay…" Twilights horn soon began to glow, and so did the other elements that each pony was now wearing.

"Go…" Celestia whispered, the beam of energy that rapidly approached the object soon blinded every one of the ponies.

* * *

><p>"<em><strong>MAYDAY. MAYDAY. SHEILD OFFLINE. MAYDAY. MAYDAY. ENGINES FAILING.<strong>_" The computerized voice screamed at each of the crew members.

A single pulse of electricity swept through the ship from the main computer. This pulse was carrying a message to the small worker drones and emergency repair drones dotting the inside, and outside of the ship. _Brace yourself._

"_EVERYBODY, PLEASE PROCEED TO THE NEAREST ESCAPE POD, THE SHIP WILL SURVIVE IMPACT. I REPEAT, THE SHIP WILL SURVIVE IMPACT." _What the commander had told them was that the ship would survive the impact, but nobody inside of it would.

Workers left instructions with repair drones, crewmen jogged to the escape pod launch bay. The ship was not doomed, and that was reason enough to celebrate.

I ran to the escape pod bay as well, realizing what had just happened. Somehow, a high-energy laser came from a planet without even the most basic form of nuclear power. The fact that the laser was fired was a declaration of war on the federation. Did they have any idea of what they had done?

I crawled into an escape pod, shortly followed by the Commander, and a few officers. We took our seats and prepared to be jettisoned from the falling ship.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

Like a semi-automatic rifle, the pods were launched from their tubes one by one. I pulled out my PDA and connected it to the inside of the pod. I would now be able to monitor the progress of the evacuation. I looked outside, and saw the thousands of repair drones pushing the ship to it's desired landing coordinates.

It was reported that the merchant ships we had been escorting sped up and away. They were past the asteroids. They no longer needed us, but we would need them very soon.

My PDA also said that the reactors, the big worry in this type of situation, were under control and braced for impact. We definitely would be fine until impact. Then we would have to worry about the angry natives.

* * *

><p>The sirens kept up their brutal drone. Nothing had gone according to the Princess's plan. The elements were unconscious, their energy drained by the iron sky creature, the iron sky creature in question was not destroyed, simply falling, and the iron creature had launched hundreds upon hundreds of tiny iron creatures towards the desert to the west. She gave the command she needed to, just in case. A command not spoken in over one thousand years.<p>

_"Send the army."_

* * *

><p><em><strong>UPDATES:<strong>_

I'm glad to see you guys like this. I plan to keep it up.

Thanks for all the positive feedback, but feel free to critique anything you see as unfit.

I only made this chapter so fast because I spent all of yesterday night writing it. Legit until 6 AM. I have school and other responsibilities so at the very minimum expect something every 2 weeks. But remember, _**NO PROMISES.**_


	4. Impact

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

_** BOOM!**_

The last thud of a Pod being jettisoned we would hear. Our pod had finally launched. My PDA reported that at least half the crew had also been evacuated. It looked like everybody was going to make it.

I decided to run over our current situation in my head. We, a small capital ship only designed to shoot asteroids, were about to land on an inhabited, alien, planet, the natives where hostile enough to fire at us while we were in orbit, yet they were only just coming out of their industrial revolution, and most importantly, it didn't seem we would be able to call earth for backup. The only ship in our fleet that had radios powerful enough to do that was currently escaping with the merchants.

"Looks like we're gonna be greeting the natives soon enough." The Commander was looking at the digital display screen. It was designed to look like a window, but we all knew that having a real window would be a huge risk upon impact.

What he had pointed out was startling. In the center of the large desert we were planning to land in, what appeared to be a large town was visible. The extremely powerful camera zoomed in on the town closest to our impact zone.

The classic American old western town, complete with a simple single-track railroad leading east to west.

"I bet you each 50 credits they run for their lives when we land." I was trying to make some fun out of the situation, but we all knew that town was a little too much like old American towns.

"Commander, Captain, what will we do about the natives? How do we react to their firing on us?" The officer that was in the pod was sharp. I didn't think anyone not on the bridge at the time would understand what was happening.

"Same way they used to on earth, we fire back." The veteran that led our ship was sure to start a fight with the natives.

"Commander, they may have been doing some strange ritual or something part of their culture. We don't even know if they fired at us out of hostility. They could have been greeting us!" I didn't want a fight. A newly industrialized civilization would be ready for war. Humanity had been peaceful ever since it took to the stars. A single ship that was designed to blow up rocks was going to have trouble taking on an entire industrialized planet. A warring species that had the ability to accurately attack an orbiting object was bound to have other tricks up its sleeve. No more than a small defense would be mountable. We would have to improvise.

* * *

><p>Stallions all over Equestria were gathering at Canterlot castle. Preparing to subdue whatever had caused the kingdom wide alert, they began to gather cannons and powder. Frantic ponies in the manufacturing industry were making armor and more cannons for the Equestrian military. In the skies above, pegasi gathered from all over to prepare for their rightful duty to the princesses. They had specialized factories producing hundreds of to-be airdropped bombs a day.<p>

"Are you sure this is the right approach sister? We don't know anything about the iron creatures. They could be peaceful and have the gift of knowledge. They could be able to perform miracles and cure any disease. What makes you want to attack them?" Luna has always been against war. She was the sole reason why the ponies and griffons had come to peace all those years ago.

"Luna, I never meant to fight. But as the leader of Equestria I must do something! I want peace just as much as you do sister, but if those creatures want to fight then we must be ready. If they wish to help us then they will not be stopped."

"Then why did you have the elements fire on them? I'm sure they would be mad after we _attacked _them."

"And that's why I have to prepare. I admit that attacking them was a not the best thing we could have done, but that's in the past. We must deal with the present and future. Trying to change the past is impossible, you of all ponies should know that." The Princesses wise words struck Luna. She understood the panic of seeing the iron creature. She had seen it in the void first and panicked then. In her panic she had wasted all of her energy to try and return quickly to Equestria. She had nearly rendered herself incapable of helping to gather the elements after she arrived.

"I understand… I will see if the elements are awake yet." Luna trotted to the Canterlot hospital.

"Oh Luna." Celestia went to her balcony, watching the iron creature approach the western horizon, being chased down by the sun.

"It looks just like a star…" She sighed before returning to the difficult task of sending many ponies to the desert.

* * *

><p>"Brace for impact." The electronic voice that embodied the pods computer warned us. We strapped ourselves in. An escape pod wasn't designed with comfort in mind; instead it was designed for survival.<p>

The pod was shaking now. I tried to hold myself inside the cushioning seat but the vibrations became increasingly violent. The wind whipped around our heat resistant little contraption. The cameras showing us the impact zone had been retracted into the pod to avoid destruction. We weren't even sure if the natives would fire on us again or not. We would be doomed if they did. The shaking continued to get worse…

We sat like this for about 20 minutes. Nobody said a word. We were all too frightened at what was ahead of us.

"Deploying parachutes"

Uh oh.

Our minds darkened for a minute. We had gone under almost 12 G's of force in an instant. Being trained space farers, we were somehow able to survive without our bodies being crushed.

We sat there for a minute. Just to regain full awareness of the situation.

"Do I hear steam?" The Commander was right. A hissing could be heard from the outside of the pod.

"I think we landed on sand. So it's probably just the heat shield glassing it." I got up to put on my mask from the rear of the pod. Bad idea.

_CLANG_

I sit down again quickly. My head is sore.

"Be careful captain. Less G's here than on the ship." The officer slowly got up.

Then I remembered. The planet we were taking the merchants to had gravity more powerful than Earths. Because of this, we had spun up the RPM on the gravity simulator on the ship to closely resemble the target planets gravity, about 2 G's.

This planet and Earth both had very similar masses, and gravity because of it. With the planets gravity at about 1 G, we were about twice as powerful here as we were on the ship. That's why I got up a lot faster than I meant to.

"Do we even need masks?" the Commander was motioning to the officer who was putting his on.

"I bet you this place has the same atmosphere as the earth. For all we know, we landed in some godforsaken part of-" He continued on like this for a few minutes while I checked the sensors on the outside of the pod.

"You're right Commander. Similar atmosphere, similar humidity, similar air pressure, similar to everything you could expect from some dessert on Earth." I was just as shocked as he looked.

"Are you telling me? That we could open up those doors, and not worry about anything? At all?"

"Looks like it. Here, I'll go first." I had to do it now.

"_Hsssssssss"_

The doors opened, and from outside a slight gust of wind and dust came into the pod.

I stepped out and I was shocked at the sight presented right before my eyes.

It was almost midnight, I could tell from a glance at the moon. Hundreds of glowing pieces of metal were raining down from above, while the people down below began to scrap their pods. The Commander stepped out behind me.

"I'm going to begin setting up camp. We have about two hours before the ship lands. Gather some crewmen and set up a perimeter." He was just yelling from over his shoulder as he walked off.

"Alright. You, officer, take the pod apart, but save all the computer bits and the thrusters. Afterwards, tell the other newer pods to do the same." I walked to the pods that had already been landed for a while. They would have the men I needed to explore the area.


	5. Transit

Two winged unicorns flew over ponyville. They could not afford to call any guards away from Canterlot to pull them in a chariot. They could not teleport either, teleportation had been stopped everywhere in Equestria, due to the fear that the magic sky creatures had the ability.

"I say we take a break sister. There is no telling how long our mission will take." Luna was beginning to get hungry after all the flying.

"We could stop in PonyVille, it is our next destination as well."

"Sounds like a plan." The two sisters gazed to the west. The large iron creature now appeared to be a quarter the size of the moon. What appeared to be meteorites were still streaking down into the horizon faster than the creature, but they appeared to be coming from it.

The two sisters watched in awe. Even they with their nearly infinite power and knowledge couldn't grasp something so far beyond pony abilities.

"What do you suppose it is sister?" Celestia needed someone to bounce her predictions off of.

"Some sort of creature, with magic strong enough to resist the elements." Luna was still watching it's slow descent.

"And what do you suppose will happen when it lands?" Celestia had a pretty good idea herself of what would happen, but wanted another perspective.

"I can't say for sure, but I'm sure something big will. Be it catastrophic or miraculous, I cannot say."

"With our luck it may go straight through the earth, leaving a hole in the middle!" Luna looked at her sister, shocked for a moment, until she saw the humor and began laughing with her.

"I see Ponyville. Let us stop for the night."

"Good idea Luna."

The two sisters circled downwards. The soon to be walled village radiated noise as the work ponies cemented the bricks together.

Equestria hadn't seen war in over a thousand years…

* * *

><p>Some men had small repair robots brought down with them. Their ability to do the same task endlessly was very important on the ground. About a dozen were zooming around the impact zone, making the preparations necessary for the incoming ship.<p>

I was walking towards the small fire that had been started near the center of all the pods. Around 20 men were sitting around the warm glow, some cooking slabs of meat they brought, others talking, and a few were drawing in the sand.

I examined the group, I knew exactly who I wanted to find. Few people could come up with an easy solution to any problem in the whole of humanity, even less would be found in the crew of a small ship like ours, and there was only one I could trust enough to approach.

His name was Daniel, but we just called him Abu. He was like the kind grandfather of everyone on board. He was very good with machines, and was the only person trusted to repair the reactors in the ship. That's why we had needed the robots.

"Paine! Damnit, we thought you hadn't come down yet." Of course, it was Cal.

"Cal, you seen Abu anywhere?" As happy as I was to see him, I couldn't stop to chat.

"Yeah, I think he was helping some crewmen take computers out of the pods. He's just north of here." Cal pointed.

"Alright Cal, thanks. I'll try and find you tomorrow."

I turned and went in the direction he had pointed. The sand slid under my feet.

* * *

><p>The train shivered as it went down the two stretches of steel. The pulsing smokestack made the only sound for miles.<p>

The silence, after so long, was finally broken.

"What do you think o' that thing in the sky?" The engineer pony had had nothing major to do for a couple hours.

"That big 'un? I aint got the slightest idea." The stoker pony was shoveling more coal into the engine

The engineer turned up the speed. He didn't like the feel of the large object in the sky. He just wanted to get back to Appaloosa, where his wife, and a nice warm bed waited for him.

"Gives ya a mighty strange feeling, don't it?"

"Yeah. It feels… unnatural…"

The stoker turned away. Looking over the long expanses of savanna, he started seeing spots of sand. The air felt drier. The air felt like _home._

"I think we're almost home now" He turned around and examined their haul.

"Why in the hell are we pulling so many black cars anywho?"

"I can't quite say I know why. Probably some officials or something of the sort."

The two ponies looked ahead. In an hour or so, they would start to see some lights from the town ahead.

* * *

><p>Iron Spike was pacing up and down the rows of sleeping soldiers. He had been given few orders, but was smart enough to understand he had to do something related to the thing in the sky; he looked up to the clock. It was finally time.<p>

Iron Spike went to the first car. He was looking for a specific pony to execute step one of his mission.

"Wake up. You're late." Iron Spikes broken horn sparked a little before lighting up the small cabin.

"Oh man. It's like, 3 am and a Saturday, we don't do drills on Saturday."

"You're on a train, headed to Appaloosa. We can't drill now Darkly."

Darkly rolled off his cot, and fell onto the floor with a thud.

"Damnit, you'll wake up everypony else if you don't quit it."

"Sorry sir. Won't happen again sir." Darkly stood up and rubbed his nose.

"Let's roll."

Iron Spike put out his light; the two ponies crept to the front of the train.

"You get the one on the left, but let me go first." Iron Spike slid out the door towards his target, the train engineer.

Darkly followed his lead, and dove into the pile of coal used to fuel the train.

"What the hell…" The stoker turned around. Darkly couldn't get out without being seen.

_Whump_

The stoker turned around, only to see the engineer on the ground.

Darkly leapt.

_Whump_

The stoker slumped onto the hard, steel, floor.

Iron Spike turned and began to take control of the train. After he had set the speed to maximum, he spoke to Darkly.

"Move those two to the left, it'll be easier for us to shove 'em off at the station."

Darkly piled the two unconscious ponies into the corner, turned, and sat.

The two ponies looked ahead. In an hour or so, they would start to see some lights from the town ahead.

* * *

><p>"Abu! Damnit Abu where the hell are you!" I was yelling now, frustrated that he hadn't shown his withered face.<p>

"What the hell do you want, Paine?" He stepped out of a pod.

"I got a problem, and I need you to help me get a solution."

"What is it? Did you fuck somthin up?"

"No. The commander wants me to set up a perimeter. So, if you had to protect our 'little' group of people, with what you have now, and you only have two hours to set up, what would you do?"

"I'd walk about 30 feet from here, to my pod, grab my shotgun, and give err body else sticks."

"You have a shotgun?"

"No. But if I did, that's what I'd do. I could probably make you a gun in about a week. Ammunition though, is a whole other thing."

"Damn. What the hell should I do then?"

"Improvise."

"What?"

"I dunno. What do you want?"

"Something to kill an animal with. Not some shitty little squirrel or something, something like a pig or cow."

"You could use your damn pocket knife!" He was talking about the standard issue Swiss Army knife all the men had. They had a pretty powerful laser built in, and you could switch it out for an even more powerful one.

"Do you know how long I would have to point that thing at a bear or whatever the fuck lives here to stop it? I need something physical. Something fast."

"I got a nail gun."

"A nail gun?"

"Yeah, one o' those fancy magnetic ones. It's probably small enough to fit in your pocket. It even looks like a god damned gun!"

"Isn't that just a rail gun?"

"Sorta, but it's a tool, not a weapon. I could get you one that works like a gun in about 15 minutes. It would be real quiet too."

"Really? What's the catch?"

"Well, you'd only be able to fire one nail at a time, and you'd need to put a new one in every time."

"That's fine. I got time."

"And you'd need to carry all those nails with you."

"Can't it fire things other than nails though?"

"I like the way you think. In theory, it should be able to shoot out anything magnetic that fits in the barrel."

"I'll take it."

"Sold"

I shook his hand. Problem solved.


End file.
